8 Prove One's Worth
"After it dropped, this corner started to collapse..."
"We already know that," Saki interrupted from the back.
Ignoring this, Hunter pointed to the left corner. "That did not start to fall until the others from the first sequence completed theirs." He gestured from the right corner to the pillars holding the left wall.
"The last to fall is the door frame".
By this time, the picture is now dawning on all of them and they all got excited.
"It means that when it was built..." Bingwen started
"... they did not intend for the room to kill." Milo nodded approvingly. He smiled at the rest. "You know what this means team." Milo gently guided Hunter towards the entrance.
"But..." Hunter protested.
"We are just testing if you can make the cut. But do not underestimate the team, Mr Wang." Kat looked directly at Hunter but her peripheral vision caught Saki making small clapping gestures like a little schoolgirl.
Hunter looked at the rest of the team and can't help but marvel at how accurately they are positioned at the trigger link areas. Mikan is at the far right, Bingwen is at the far left, Elward is at the altar, Keith is at the lower left and Kazuki is at the lower right.
"Restart the sequence," Milo told Kairav.
Hunter whispered something to Kairav and the Indian nodded as he typed on the keyboard.
"Sequence restarting," he said as he tapped the enter key.
Nothing happened.
Hunter looked at Saki. "There are weight switches."
"Weeyt shishes," Saki mocked but Hunter remained poker faced.
When Elward started to move as if to approach the altar, the ball dropped crushing everything below.
"Wait..." Milo motioned for Saki to come closer.
"There was a scroll recovered from these ruins. You studied them, yeah?"
Saki took a deep breath and recited the scroll's content. "To abandon one's faith when the sky is falling is but human nature. Look not only to the future for signs of hope, for salvation can also be found if you have the courage to look back."
They all looked at each other. Everyone grinned. All except the bewildered Hunter.
"Back to your positions," Saki said in a low voice that indicated her authority for the first time. "Kairav, restart the sequence."
Kazuki started walking towards the door as Keith started running to where he was just standing. Simultaneously, Bingwen ran towards Keith's station.
Mikan started running and dodging the falling debris, laughing as she somersaulted to where Bingwen was standing as the falling stones barely missed her. The former gymnast lithely avoided the falling dominoes of wood and stone, and as the last one fell behind her, she happily responded to the waiting fist bumps.
In the center of the room is Elward. Untouched by the chaos around him.
When they looked up, the ball stayed suspended in the air.
Cheers filled the abandoned warehouse.
----
The team was in high spirits as they sat together in a private room in an izakaya restaurant. Having successfully finished the digital reconstruction of the temple ruins and with the arrival of a new member of the team, they proceeded to have a dinner to celebrate and welcome Hunter into the team.
Of course, this all happened with Saki's expressed disapproval. Unfortunately, Kat kept her eyes on Saki, not letting her escape.
"You can't skip out on us. It's a team dinner," Kat reasoned out.
And so, on they went happily to their favorite restaurant. The owner, recognizing them as regular customers, gave them their usual private tatami room.
Drinks were served while they waited for the food to be ready. Meanwhile, the rest of the team exchanged glances as they watched Saki and Hunter, who were seated across each other on one end of the table. Speaking with their eyes, they urged Milo who was naturally their leader to speak up.
Milo, who sat beside Hunter, cleared his throat. "I think an introduction is in order, don't you think, boss?"
Saki, looking quite happy since they arrived, nodded at Hunter's direction. "Hey, strange dude, you're the one who wanted to join the team. Introduce yourself."
Hunter stared at Saki, who went back to playing on her phone. Then he shifted his gaze to the others. "Hunter Wang. I'll be your resident architect."
"Welcome to the team, Hunter. My name's Milo Drakos." Milo shook Hunter's hand. "I'm an archaeologist specializing in landscape archaeology. I'm also the explorations leader."
He then introduced the rest of the team to Hunter. "We've got 3 out of 5 archaeologists present today, myself included.
"As I assume you know, our boss is the lead archaeologist. She's an expert in experimental archaeology; the digital reconstruction today was her idea. She's also the leading epigraphy expert in the field.
"This one next to me is Kazuki Kinoshita, an archaeologist and our resident antique weapons expert.
"Our anthropologists are Kat Andrasko and Keith Lang. Kat is also our team manager; she makes sure that the team is running smoothly and is also our antiquities expert. Keith is also a mountaineer.
"The loud guy over there beside Keith is Hao Bingwen, the explosives and weapons expert. He's formerly a military man who served in the Queen's army."
"Bah!" Bingwen exclaimed with disappointment. "I was only deployed in the latter end of the war. Wasn't able to get any action whatsoever!"
Elward placed his arm around Bingwen's shoulder, trying to placate him.
"That guy with his arm over Bingwen is Elward Redman. He's our engineer.
"The little lady beside him is Mikan Kitano, our resident geophysicist.
"Next to her is Jake Juarez, our geologist and dig supervisor.
"The big burly guy is Frank Cardellini, a former Air Force soldier. He's in charge of logistics and security.
"And next to him is our equipment manager, heavy machine operator, and lead driver, Earl Montenegro.
"Which leaves the three geeks over here." He motioned over to the three IT personnel. "They're our resident IT team, in charge of anything tech related. The guy on the leftmost is Kairav Desai. He's our software specialist and programmer; does most of the imaging manipulations and 3D rendering. Next to him is Cao Ying. He's our MIT prodigy; can build almost any electronic gadget you'll ever need. The silent guy is Jiro Fujikawa; our network specialist and the youngest member of our team."
"And that, my dear friend, rounds up this segment of 'Meet the Members'," Bingwen interjected in a loud voice.
Hunter smiled. "It's good to meet you all."
Milo chuckled. "We still have a few other members who are not here. I'll introduce them to you next time."
The food arrived by the time Milo finished introducing everyone. They all dug in, chatting happily as they ate and drank.
Hunter watched Saki fill her cup for the fifth time as she conversed cheerfully with Kat and Milo.
Last to be served was a plate filled with beef slices mixed with red and green chili peppers. The dish was placed in front of Kazuki, who immediately pushed it towards Kairav, who was sitting in front of him. The aroma emanating from it was enough to tell them that the dish was very hot and spicy.
"Is that what I think it is?" Elward asked, a look of horror on his face.
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izakaya - a type of informal Japanese bar that serves alcoholic drinks and snacks; casual place for after-work drinking similar to Irish pubs or American taverns
